Zotac re-enters ATX motherboard market after a long absence

Zotac has been relatively absent from the ATX motherboard market for a very long time making only mini-ITX and mATX atom boards in recent years. However, they are coming back to the market now with a new release which will be a socket 1155 motherboard. The board is going to be aimed at the top end of the market, for the gamers, enthusiasts and overclockers.

The “ZT-Z68-U1DU3” is a full sized ATX board based on the Z68 chipset , which has support for a 24 phase CPU VRM, 2 Phase DDR3 VRM with support for 2133MHz and upwards with overclocking memory, Four PCI-E 2.0 16X slots, One PCI-E 2.0 1X and Two PCI slots.

The electrical arrangements of the PCI-E lanes can be as follows:

• x16/NoConnection/x16/NoConnection
• x16/NoConnection/x8/x8
• x8/x8/x8/x8

The LGA 1155 socket also makes use of driver-MOSFETs, solid chokes, high-C and Super ML Capacitors. Storage options include 8 SATA ports (number of II and III not specified) as well as an mSATA to support Intel’s Smart Response technology. The rear IO includes four USB 3.0 and one e-SATA the front also has two USB 3.0s. 8 channel HD audio, Gigabit LAN and wireless B/G/N is also included.

No pricing yet but expect it to be competitive as Zotac is looking to make a comeback.